Surgical towel clip

ABSTRACT

A one time use surgical towel clip having two arms readily engaging towel surfaces under compression in a crossing relationship out of contact with a patient and establishing a plane with opposingly bent ends that offset the gripped towels from the plane to oppositely snub the clip and towels against slippage.

United States Patent 11 1 Posdal 1 Oct. 30, 1973 1 1 SURGICAL TOWEL CLIP 3,604,071 9 1971 Reimels 128/346 x [76] Inventor: Robert J. Posdal, 329 Council Ct., FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Selle, 618,821 4/1961 Canada 128/346 22 Filed: Oct. 1 1972 805,122 8/1936 France 24/259 FC [21] Appl 298023 Primary Examiner-Donald A. Griffin Att0rneyWatson D. Harbaugh et al. [52] US. Cl. 24/259 FC, 128/346 [51] Int. Cl. A4411 21/00, A61b 17/00 [57} ABSTRACT [58] Field of Search 24/259 PC, 255 PC,

24/255 TH 261 C; 128/346 321 325 I A ope tlme 11se surglcal towel cl1p havmg two arn 1s readlly engagmg towel surfaces under compresslon 1n [56] References Cited a arosstingrrilationshilp out contac? wlithba patiegt an es a 1s mg a pane w1 opposlngy en en s UNITED STATES PATENTS that offset the gripped towels from the plane to oppo- 1,317,243 9/1919 TO1'11S ]O 24/259 FC itel nub the and towels against lippage 1,558,431 10/1925 Walker 24/261 C UX 3,083,711 4/1963 Ramsay -128/325 6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures SURGICAL TOWEL CLIP BACKGROUND OF INVENTION:

Needle point scissoring clamps heretofore have been used in draping towels around an Operating area and penetration of the towelling leads to undesirable contact or even injury to the skin of the patient. Penetration of a surgeons glove is also a hazard. These clamps require sterilization and in handling between operations can injure personel or equipment and also be lost or damaged. Many devices intended to clamp the towels merely establish a clamping relation in the plane of the towels while others that distort the towels are hard to handle and are not easily applied or removed, or, are not designed for ready use in surgery.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION:

In the present invention flat strip spring stock with its molecular structure longitudinally oriented is stamped with little waste of material to provide a handle portion and narrow asymmetrically arranged legs having V- shaped tips. The stampings are folded to form a U- shaped handle and the narrow legs are shapedto cross one another adjacent to the handle in a plane transverse to that of the handle, and the terminal ends are bent to provide tips extending oppositely beyond the transverse plane to engage and form in the clamped towels an S-type curve in combination with the planar clamping effort exerted nearest the bight of the clamp. The wide portions of the handle are curved for ease of a surgeon in gripping and squeezing the handle by the thumb and first finger when attaching or detaching the clamp.

Towels are conventionally laid crisscross at the corners of the area of incision and the overlapping towels are finger pinched to provide a four layer ridge across which the legs can be applied. The handle portion of the clip thenlies flat and a towel edge can then be laid back over the clip. At least one of the towels on one side of the arms defines an acute angle around one tip. The clamping strengthof the clip, the acute angle of one towel and the bulge of the fold next to the other tip of the towels adjacent ,to the arms assists in holding the draped towels in place. Yet the towel arrangement can easily be readjusted-or removed by the surgeon aswell as attendants during or following surgical procedures.

IN THE DRAWINGS:

FIG. 1 is a perspective, enlarged view of the clip embodying the invention secured in towel draping manner;

FIG. 2 is a section taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the clip itself with its clamp fingers open;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the clip;

FIG. 5 is a demonstrational view of how the clip is heldmanually in open position ready for attachment fortowel draping;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the clip; and

FIG. 7 is an end view of the clip.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT:

Referring to the drawing in further detail, the clip 10 as shown in FIG. 3 is made preferably from stainless steel strip that is approximately five-.sixteenths inch wide and of a thickness selected for the flexure strength. The clip 10 is one of many that are successively stamped lengthwise of the strip stock with one of the legs 12 of the severed clip located laterally adjacent to the leg14 of the next clip 10. At severance, the width, and thereby the strength, of the legs, can be determined by the die shape and positioning.

The blank is then transversely curved as at 16 (FIG. 7) throughout the handle 17 and the free ends 18 of the legs 12 and 14 are bent at right angles to provide teeth or tips 20. This bending is in the same direction and the legs are bodily offset at their supported ends 22 at the same time in a direction opposite to the direction of the tips as well as mutually slanted as shown in FIG. 6 to dispose the tips at the opposite side of the blank. Thereafter the blank is bent approximately l80 in the center as at 24 with the backs 26 of the legs 12 and 14 towards each other. As the legs approach each other the relative angle of the bend 24 and the legs is resiliently strained so that they: will clear and pass each other. Thereupon the blank is released for the legs 12 and 14 to orient themselves as shown in FIGS. 4, 6 and 7 in which the legs press against each other in a reverse direction with the tips directed oppositely towards each other. Then when the overlapping full width sides 28 of the strip that form handle 17 are gripped by thumb 30 and forefinger 32 and pressed in the direction of arrows 34 the legs separate from each other (FIG. 5) to receive folds 36 of surgical towels 38 between them. Upon handle release, the arms close against the towel fold 36 and the towelling is held substantially planar between the legs 26 and. the tips 20 oppositely offset the towelling as at 40 (FIG. 2) to compress and snub folds of towelling against loosening.

The cross curvature of the handle portion may be convex as shown or concave, the resiliency with a concave shape at the curve 24 being stiffer if desired, for the same thickness of material since the inner curvature is under compression when flexing.

Any sharp edges left in the shear lines at the tips and along the arms is removed by tumbling, the arms otherwise being oriented with their exit shear lines facing each other. The clip embodying the invention is further characterized by the tips 20 being sharply rounded for frictionally engaging the towelling 38 without any contour sharp enough to catch or puncture a surgeons I glove. The production and material costs of the clip are quite low and because of this the clips when used once as sterilized in a bulk package can be discarded, or, if desired, collected and sterilized again for reuse without any injury to .personel or washing and sterilizing equipr'nent. The option being that of the user.

Preferably, the outer ends of the arms 12 and 14 are canted appreciably'inwardly so as to better grasp the towelling at the tips since they pass close enough to each other that the snubbing is assisted by a lateral squeeze upon the thickness of the towelling between the tips along with the double opposing offset shown in FIG. 2. The arms have a minimum towel engaging length of approximately three-fourths of an inch and preferably the handle members pass through a parallel orientation between the fully closed position and the towel receiving manual opened position to minimize finger slippage under compression.

What is claimed is:

1. A surgical towel clip comprising,

a central U-shapedsqueeze handle of relatively wide spring material,

2. The clip defined in claim 1 in which said handle has a cross-sectionally arcuate section, and

said arms are integral reduced extensions of said spring material. 3. The clip defined in claim 1 in which said arms are less in width than one-half the width of said U-shaped handle spring material.

4. The clip defined in claim 1 in which the terminal end of said tips are sharply rounded to hold towel material without penetrating it.

5. The clip defined in claim 1 being formed ofa single stamping from metal strip stock in which the legs are asymmetrically oriented with respect to the center line of said stock.

6. The clip defined in claim 1 in combination with overlapping surgical towels at least two layers of which are held under compression in said plane between said normally contacting crossing arms,

said tips displacing said layers from said plane and providing a close clearance between the tips disposing said layers therebetween at an angle to said plane. 

1. A surgical towel clip comprising, a central U-shaped squeeze handle of relatively wide spring material, arms connected to the free ends of the handle crossing each other adjacent to the handle and in the direction of handle movement, said arms further crossing in normal contact with each other under compression in a plane that is perpendicular to said direction of handle movement, and tips on the ends of said arms spaced an appreciable distance from each other laterally and directed in opposite directions to extend normally through and beyond said plane.
 2. The clip defined in claim 1 in which said handle has a cross-sectionally arcuate section, and said arms are integral reducEd extensions of said spring material.
 3. The clip defined in claim 1 in which said arms are less in width than one-half the width of said U-shaped handle spring material.
 4. The clip defined in claim 1 in which the terminal end of said tips are sharply rounded to hold towel material without penetrating it.
 5. The clip defined in claim 1 being formed of a single stamping from metal strip stock in which the legs are asymmetrically oriented with respect to the center line of said stock.
 6. The clip defined in claim 1 in combination with overlapping surgical towels at least two layers of which are held under compression in said plane between said normally contacting crossing arms, said tip displacing said layers from said plane and providing a close clearance between the tips disposing said layers therebetween at an angle to said plane. 